Going straight to the Cross
 
Tuesday, 3. August 2004

Looking Through God's Eyes At Salvation (part 3)

by Barry Newton

I can hardly be justified in calling them clues because the framework was never intended to be a puzzle to be solved. Nevertheless, the following "clues" provide the necessary pieces for discovering the consistent principle of grace by which God has chosen to identify those who belong to him. The Lord knows those who are his and his word reveals his perspective.

As someone whose family had worshipped other gods, Abram did not deserve the favor of being the recipient of God's covenant. But God appeared to Abram commanding him to walk blamelessly before him and offering him a series of promises through a covenant relationship. One of those promises was that the LORD would be his God and the God of his descendants./1 Through covenant, God took Abram and his descendants to be his people.

Years later at Mount Sinai to the gathered descendants of Abram's grandson, Israel, God thundered that he would take them to be his own possession from among all the peoples, if they would keep his covenant./2 Throughout the history of Israel, God's covenant with Israel was the vehicle of grace by which God took them to belong to himself./3

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God announced that the days were coming when he would create a new covenant. God promised to forgive the sins and to take as his own people those who would enter into this covenant./4 Through grace God sent his Son to die in order that he might create this new covenant./5 Accordingly, it is the person of Jesus who makes possible our forgiveness and adoption as children of God.

God has not changed how he elects those who belong to him. He calls people into a covenant relationship with himself. Through Christ, God has offered by grace a new covenant to the whole world. It is through the blood of this covenant that the Lord forgives and takes a people to be his own. Salvation is a gift of grace to those who enter Christ's covenant.

There is a very good reason why baptism is described in the New Testament as being how someone receives the promises of the new covenant (forgiveness & becoming a child of God, that is, salvation)./6 When someone responds to the good news of Jesus by being baptized, that individual enters the new covenant. The gospel calls us to rely upon Jesus by being baptized. This is why when Jesus is preached, people seek to be baptized./7

If the blood of the covenant by which God forgives and claims people as his own is essential for being saved today, then must not also the means for entering that covenant be essential for salvation? If trusting in Jesus is essential for salvation, then must not the manner by which the Scriptures call for us to rely upon Jesus also be essential?

1/ Genesis 17:1-8 2/ Exodus 19:5,6; 24:5-8 3/ Deuteronomy 29:12-15; Ezekiel 16:8; Jeremiah 11:3,4 4/ Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13; 10:16,17 5/ Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:15-17 and 10:9,10 6/ Acts 2:38; 22:16; Galatians 3:26,27; 1 Peter 3:21 7/ Acts 8:12, 35,36

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Can God Hear You? (Part Two)

by Richard Mansel

Being separated from God because of our sins, we do not have access to him for remission of our trespasses (Isaiah 59:1,2). We can do nothing to be reconciled to God on our own. We do not have an "intercessor" (Isaiah 59:16) to bring us back to God. God will not even hear us because our lives are dominated by sinful pursuits.

However, God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV). John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Ezekiel 18:23 says, "Do I have any pleasure that the wicked should die? And not that he should turn from his ways and live?"

God looked and found a Redeemer in his son, Jesus the Christ. Becoming the "captain" of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10, KJV), Jesus bridged the impassable river and delivered us to God.

Paul writes in Romans 5:8,9, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

Because we chose to sin, we became "enemies" of God. We were supposed to die for our sins. We were God's enemies and we are told that when Christ returns he will "take vengeance on those who know not God" (1 Thessalonians 1:8). We would be swept away into eternal destruction (Matthew 25:46).

But God had too much love for us and provided an avenue of escape.

Jesus died for us even though our sins put him on the cross. We could never remove his blood from our hands no matter how we tried. The classic hymn says, "there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains" ("There is a Fountain," lyrics by William Cowper).

Because of this "indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15), we now have the opportunity to come to Jesus for this redemption. We do so by accepting that Jesus is the source of our salvation (John 8:24). Then we must repent that we have sought salvation in any other source (Acts 17:30). We must confess him as the new Lord of our life (Romans 10:9,10). Finally, we must die as he did and be baptized for the remission of our sins (Romans 6:3,4; Acts 2:38). When we are born again (John 3:3-5), we arise with the blood removed from our hands.

As scripture asks, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). How can we enter heaven for all eternity if we are not willing to admit Christ is the source of our salvation? How can we look for another redeemer and still be pleasing to God?

Jesus once asked the apostles if they were going to leave him as the disciples did. Peter responded, "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?" (John 6:68).

If we are "in Christ" we have access to God through Jesus. He has brought us to his father and petitions him with our prayers (1 John 2:1). We will live with him in this life and dwell with him forever in eternity (Revelation 3:20; John 14:1-3).

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What's in a Name?

by Barbara Oliver

I was born in West Virginia. My grandmother was Maybelle Hatfield, before she married. One of my Hatfield aunts is married to a McCoy. Nearly everyone in the USA has heard of the historic feud between these two infamous families. And though it is fun to joke about being a Hatfield, it is not really a name to be proud of.

Names are so important. A girl in one of my karate classes was about fourteen, overweight, and very shy. She told the instructor her last name was Jones. A few weeks later, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Butts, came to the school to find out why they had gotten a bill for a little girl named Jones. She was embarrassed about her last name. She was tired of being teased. She wanted to re-create herself.

Another young fellow's father had deserted his family for another woman. He now had a stepfather who loved him and wanted to adopt him. When he went to school for the first time, he gave his stepfather's last name as his own and cried inconsolably when they told him he couldn't use that name.

God considers names important. A few examples? He changed Jacob's name to Israel (Genesis 35:10). He named Ishmael (Genesis 16:11) and Isaac (Genesis 17:19), and renamed Abram and Sarai (Genesis 17:5,15). He also named John and Jesus (Luke 1:13,31).

Our Father has adopted us as sons, and each day we strive to re-invent ourselves in his likeness. And, oh, how proud we should be that God has renamed all his sons "Christian" (Acts 11:26, 1 Peter 4:16).

Let us hold fast to that name (Revelation 2:13, NKJV).

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